Job fears divert MPs from airport

Anxiety among federal Labor MPs in western Sydney was on display yesterday with one warning against putting a second Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek and another telling caucus the government’s problems in the west went way beyond law and order.

With the government about to release a report recommending the site of a second airport, Labor backbencher
Ed Husic
said he and fellow MPs in the region did not want an airport in the west because it would exacerbate congestion.

“I don’t think I’ll be the first person to speak up on this, particularly in this year when both parties need to lay out on the table what their position is in relation to the airport," said Mr Husic, who holds the seat of Chifley.

The industry and investors believe Badgerys Creek is the best site, while the government is tending towards a site near Wilton, south-west of Sydney.

Labor’s polling shows the government to be in dire trouble in western Sydney. During the caucus meeting,
Laurie Ferguson
, the MP for Werriwa, said the government needed to focus on more than its recently announced campaign against gun crime in the region.

He told colleagues job insecurity was a major issue and the government had failed to assuage community fears about immigrants taking local jobs.

Mr Ferguson, who has strong links to ethnic communities, said the Labor government had successfully ended the rorting of 457 work visas and student visa programs, which had been abused to gain residency, but the community had not got this message.

He said neither racism nor refugees per se were the problem, but rather the fear that cheap labour was costing jobs, when no such thing was happening.